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iv tryed to make the picture a little moody,just a chap i work with and was willing to let me try my new lens out. im using a canon 30d and a canon 70-200 l f4.... any constructive feedback welcome 
| Brand: | Canon |
| Camera: | Canon EOS 30D |
| Lens: | 70.0 - 200.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 109.4 - 312.5 mm) |
| Recording media: | JPEG (digital) |
| Date Taken: | 15 Nov 2012 - 11:30 AM |
| Focal Length: | 70mm |
| Aperture: | f/8.0 |
| Shutter Speed: | 1/160sec |
| Exposure Comp: | 0.0 |
| ISO: | 400 |
| Metering Mode: | Evaluative |
| Flash: | On, Red-eye reduction |
| White Balance: | Flash |
| Title: | tim the carver |
| Username: | 
mrthrower |
| Uploaded: | 16 Nov 2012 - 8:03 PM |
| Tags: | Portraits / people |
| VS Mode Rating |
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| Votes: | Voting Disabled |
 | Critique Wanted |
| Modifications Welcome (Upload a Modification) |
Comments
There is something here, largely because you have an excellent subject. I can see you tried to emphasise mood in this image, and the picture does emerge. Now, there are problems! You can see light falling on the forehead, and this is good, but when it falls on the nose, reflects in the eyes and beard, it is something else. It must be toned down. On the other hand, there is a need to restore some light in the darkest areas, particularly as you get to the beard, it will help eliminate excessive reflections. The same can be said of the model's left cheek, below the ear. I do like the skin tones, but you must expand all this to improve the overall shot. 70 mm is a good focal length for portraits, obviously. Good attempt. Paul 
For me, it doesn't look moody, it looks very under exposed. You still need a wider tonal range to convey mood and the highlights have completely gone here. Not sure if you have done this in software, but I suspect lack of exposure. When using flash at close range, use minimum ISO for quality. There will be plenty of power.
Paul
thank you for your comments,im new to photography and just playing with a few ideas etc. i altered the tones using the standard canon software,maybe altered a little to much, it was a nice bright picture befor i started, i just felt his face ,stubble etc looked more like it could be from the dark side thanks again tho for the advice ..
Welcome to EPZ Tristam, - new users should really receive a warm welcome, and here it is.
The underlying shot here is really good, though a portrait format would be what I would suggest.
The final result shows that its HOW youve approached the attempt to make it a darker, moody shot that needs improvement.
The Canon software has limitations, and is generally intended as a RAW converter. You would be better using an image editing software, - and if not Photoshop, there are lots of free editors out there that are quite good, - GIMP being one, - just Google for free photo editing software and see whats there.
If you still have the original shot, - good news, - you can upload it right here, right now, - just scroll up to the modifications tab, click Upload a modification, and select your original, - then we can see what you started with.
In the modifications, I have loaded three phases in what I could do to extract a reasonable shot.
First problem is that your black is not actually black, - its a shade of grey; mod1 shows this corrected; then the lighter areas are very dar, mod2 shows what could be done to lighten, - I was limited here so its the best I could do, then mod3, shows a final image, with colour de saturated, colour corrected (your process may have affected both) and some final lighter touches. His eyes have absolutely no detail, so could not improve there, so you need more light directed towards his face, - you can use a simple piece of white card stock or paper for this.
It looks to me like your light source was above this person, judging by the shiny patch on the top of his head, - so not the best way to use the light. Better from one side, with some reflected towards the front.
Anyway, - see if you can load the original, - and dont worry, - I havent seen anyone not improve dramatically on here yet!
Enjoy the site,
regards
Willie
thank you again for taking the time to give advice.i used a speedlight and bounced it from the ceiling.thats probably why tim has a well lit fore head.iv now uploaded what i think was the original shot (i took two shots pretty much one after the other) .. any comments welcome
Thanks for loading the original. Its a very good shot. It does need some work on exposure and white balance, otherwise a nice shot. So again, a series of shots, explanations in the comments, to show how I got to the final image. You do need Photoshop or other for this.
regards
Willie
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